Pyroraptor is the first positively identified member of the raptor family found in Europe. This was a small, fast hunter that lived near the end of the age of dinosaurs. The specimen is known from only a few bones, but they are enough to give scientists a good idea of what this little dinosaur would have looked like. Some paleontologists believe it would have closely resembled the small, bird-like dinosaurs recently discovered in China.
Pyroraptor was found associated with fossils representing a number of other creatures, including Rhabdodon, a nodosaur, a titanosaur, a ceratopsian and some Late Cretaceous reptiles.
The origin of the dromaeosaurs has long been debated. A number of prominent scientists believe they originated in North America, possibly the area that was adjacent to Europe in the very Early Cretaceous.